~ Chapter 22: The march of the army ~

[Tuberculus’ point of view]

I got my hands on the artifact that could harm a Godlike Dungeon, the Silver Chains of Submissions. I could hold it in my palm, however, the moment that I inserted even the tiniest bit of Magic Energy in it, powerful complex spells would activate and begin to act upon Yandrea. They tied her up and forced her to follow my will. It was an unpleasant spell that smelled more of Black Magic than it did of Dark Magic...

The fact that the mages from the past somehow came into an agreement with a forgotten god was the only way I could explain how they gained the information on how to create such a vicious thing. However, just because an artifact was complex, this did not mean it was created by an unknown or evil god. Their Apostles and followers were usually portrayed as vicious beasts without the ability to think for themselves. They usually had very low if not limited ability to create complicated artifacts and mostly relied on the direct powers they gained through their corruptive rituals of Black Magic. This was why I was open to the idea that maybe it was just a very complex set of spells, and I simply did not figure out how they worked.

We also managed to save 31 captives from Koin. Out of which, 12 of them were ornaks, 7 ellyarians, 5 Lion Emperors and the others were hybrids resulted from the perverse desires of those who owned their parents. There were 3 half-ornaks, 3 half-ellyarians, and 1 half-lion. Their other half was an elf, from whom they inherited sharp features and a more human-like beauty. It would not be wrong to assume that in the eyes of a human like me, they stood out as more beautiful. However, this also pointed out a very interesting aspect, which was the fact that the species nurtured by Yandrea in her dungeon were in fact compatible with these elves. The fact that there were no Reiss or Forglore, even though some of them lived under such masters, meant that those two were far too different for a child to be conceived between them.

There was an ongoing debate in regard to this hereditary idea among the intellectuals on the Three Continents. What species was compatible with which species and if they could give birth to healthy children, were they also capable of siring more children? This debate originated from the observation of the fact that hybrid individuals were very less likely to have families of their own. Of course, the biggest reason was because everywhere you went, they cared about the purity of their bloodline, especially the draconians. Even if a hybrid child could be born, they were usually shunned away from society and seen as a bad omen by others. While the debate was interesting to ponder about, no one came to an actual conclusion about it.

Now, while we traveled down, Yandrea had to make sure that the path we took did not bring us face to face with any monster or trap. While I had nothing to worry about, these 31 refugees could easily fall prey to any random trap or hostile monster that approached us. Keeping them safe was not a difficult thing to do as one might think, we just had to be careful and take extra precautions as we dived deeper and deeper into the dungeon. Also, unlike me, their stamina was around a mid to high Beginner Adventurer. They got tired easily and could not go across any rough terrain. We had to build paths and camps as well, which resulted in a lot of building and repairing as we went along. Thankfully, there were no pursuers on our tail. According to my wife, after the Slave I beat up woke up, he rushed to the surface to take revenge on the Vespora Kingdom. Whatever came of that, we would probably find out later. For now, nobody suspected anything. As for my wife’s alibi, she claimed that after the Slave overused the artifact, she felt too drained and could no longer maintain her form. She was forced to return to the Core World to rest, an event that was well documented by them. She also complained that because of this Slave’s overzealous behavior, the preparations would be delayed by another week. In other words, she was cutting deeper into the wound while pouring salt on top of it.

During this journey, there was nothing much for me to do, so I studied the Silver Chains of Submission artifact as much as I could. It was a very complex item that, and it was outside of my specialty. I was a Teacher, I was Dungeon Researcher, I was an Explorer, I was an Adventurer, but I was certainly neither an Item Crafter nor an Artifact Researcher. As such, I found my progress to be slow if not stagnating for the most part. What I could tell from my limited knowledge was that this item was crafted no more than a 100 if not 200 years ago. Which meant that the one who made it either was still alive among the Negvar Elves or a now dead genius of the Reiss or Forglore.

The only one who could help out make heads and tails out of this was Yandrea. Once we returned to the Core World, finding a counter for this artifact was going to be our top priority, but... if I was not mistaken, then this item highly depended on what the target believed. In other words, if Yandrea believed she could be brought down by this thing, it would happen, if she saw it as useless, then it was useless. It was a path worth following in our research, because if it happened to be right, then solving this problem was easy.

“This... This is our home... I remember it...” these were the words one of the refugees spoke once they reached the Core World.

With tears in their eyes and a smile on their lips, they all rejoiced for finally being freed of their years in captivity. Those born up there, including the hybrids, were uncertain. They were a bit fearful and worried about how they would continue to live from now on, whether they would be accepted or not by everyone here.

“This is the Core World, the home of your parents and grandparents.” I told them as I took a step forward and then turned towards them “However, this is only for show. The real city is one floor below us.” I smiled.

“One floor?” they were surprised and a bit confused.

No one heard of the existence of the Hidden Floor yet, none of those who lived on the surface knew of it.

“Let’s go, everyone’s waiting to meet you.” I told them.

The path to the Hidden Floor was hidden behind a secret entrance in the pyramid at the center. A single automaton guarded it and was also in charge of opening and closing it. When we approached him, he nodded once and then moved his hand up. A granite block with an angled side floated up into the air, while behind it, several enormous granite blocks moved left and right, in a zig-zag pattern, until a single clear tunnel of 8 by 8 meters was left. We went inside and followed the path, which led us to a spiraling staircase going down.

Initially, there was no secret entrance, only a door that was connected directly to the spiral staircase. I convinced Yandrea to change it into its current version, and now, if you did not have the automaton there to point it out, you would have a difficult time finding it.

Once we were down, the entire world changed. A bustling city awaited the refugees. Returning here made me understand how different this place was from Koin, the city in the Endless Plains. The children were running on the streets, playing together, all three species. There were merchants and craftsmen left and right. Workers who carried goods and fighters who trained with their swords and spears. Everywhere you looked, there was life.

“Is this the place where we will live from now on?” one of the refugees asked, an ornak.

“Yes. I will have a talk with the leaders of each community to help you with becoming a part of them. Until then, you’ll be taken care of by the automatons, the metal ones.” I pointed at one across the street.

“We will follow and obey.” he replied.

“What about us?” a hybrid asked.

“You will get the same treatment, don’t worry.” I replied with a smile.

Everyone was now free to smile and be themselves. In this place, the Hidden Floor, there were no Slaves to torture them, no master to order them around, no superior species and inferior ones. Everyone was part of the same community we all worked hard to grow and help prosper.

Several days later, another meeting of the leaders took place. The same as before, everyone gathered at the top of the pyramid. Queen Skara with her enormous body slithered to the top, only her head poking inside and resting on a bunch of pillows, while everyone else took a seat at the round table.

“The time has come. We will prepare for war.” declared Yandrea.

The pressure turned high, the future of our lives and of everyone on the Hidden Floor was going to be decided with this meeting.

“In these few short years, we have gathered together. We trained together. We grew stronger together. We were reborn from the ashes that were burnt by the ones on the surface. The Forglore, the Negvar Elves, and the Reiss, three species that formed three individual kingdoms will now seek to rob us of everything we have. Their Vespora Kingdom, Domeris Republic, and Zebrazil Kingdom are now gathering their forces to form a punitive army to bring us down on their knees. They want to tear down everything we have achieved so far and claim it as their own. They want to strip us of our future out of fear that it might be better than theirs. Are we going to let them?”

Her voice was like a thunder that echoed in our hearts. Her words were like a hymn pulling out the hidden chivalry and honor in our souls. The strength and confidence she displayed was like an unwavering forest in front of a hurricane. She was like the most domineering seductress that I wanted to pull me into the bedroom... ahem... Except for that last part!

“WE WILL NOT!” shouted everyone at the table, me included.

“Good! We will then prepare to welcome them to our dungeon!” she declared.

“We will follow your lead, Great One!” Mystera Orogaki declared as she punched her chest.

“We will start by organizing evacuation routines for everyone in the Hidden Floor. We will have the soldiers go up to the Core World and the Lands of Giants. There they will get used to the environment and will note down the location for various traps that we might install. I will then change the floors, starting from the 7th Layer going up. The monsters will start migrating in four months from now and should be in position by the end of the sixth month. The Golem Paradise, Dead Floors, and the Endless Labyrinth will all be subjected to sudden changes during the march of the army from above. Until then, they will remain the same. No adventurer should be allowed to get past the Golem Paradise. This is why, Queen Skara, I hope you will patrol that area together with the Golem Kings there. I will instruct them to obey you for the duration of this period.” Yandrea explained the plan.

“Underssstood.” the giant snake nodded once.

“When the day of their descent will come... it will be their last!” she declared.

“IT WILL BE THEIR LAST!” everyone repeated after all and raised their fist up.

Up until now, we had planned, strategized, trained, and prepared. It was time to put it all into action. Or rather, this was our last 100-meter dash, where we had to give it our all.

In this upcoming year, a lot of things would have to change. The army of ornaks, ellyarians, and Lion Emperors would march towards the 8th Layer, while the tunnel that would deliver us freedom would be steadily dug out. The population would be trained and hopefully, when the time to fight comes, we would be ready.

As for me, I had one year left to grow stronger and one year to figure out how Chains of Submission worked and find a way to counter it. If we did not... we would have to do everything in our might to prevent them from being used on her...

[A year later...]

[Yandrea’s point of view]

On the Endless Plains, the man who was now my dreaded enemy was making his appearance. In front of an army of two million soldiers, he stood triumphantly... and arrogantly. The negvar elf Kasimir Azfassar Teruk Despino, the Crown Prince to the Domeris Republic... the ancestor of the ones who robbed me of my first friend and whose greed brought me countless moments of pain and humiliation.

Ah~ Was it wrong if I did not listen to Tuby’s plan and just poured hot boiling lava down the entrance? No? It would be bad, wouldn’t it? After all, there were those who were considered innocents in Koin... Were they worth it though?

I closed my eyes for a moment, and decided to go with the plan... They could not be allowed to suspect anything... This would have to be an accident to them, a tragedy... So, I flew towards them.

The prince was wearing a gold and silver armor with red jewels encrusted on it. His weapon was a two-handed claymore made from solid gold. I could not see the usefulness of such an inefficient weapon. Steel was better than gold. His gold hair and gold eyes were weird, I had the feeling he was using magic to change them. There were very few if any at all among their kind who had golden eyes. He probably wanted to distinguish himself from everyone else with his appearance rather than achievements.

As far as I knew and from what Tuby learned in Koin, the top continent was completely occupied by them, so there were never wars... not since they found me. Their history before me was unknown, almost as if they intentionally erased it so it would seem as if the Royals had this powerful entity, me, to do their bidding since times immemorial.

Their approach was a weird one, skewed, wrong, and held together only because I existed and submitted to them. The moment I rebelled; their entire hierarchy would crumble down to pieces like a castle of cards. Their nobles were proud because only they had the right to contract as my Slaves. With the help of those weird artifacts of theirs, they could strike me down and make me obey them without question. Fear has been ingrained in me since I was a child. Always hunted down, always looked down upon, never shown what I could do and always made to believe as if my best was irrelevant.

Tuby showed me otherwise, that I had no reason to fear, that unlike what those Royals constantly constantly constantly... told me, I was the one who held all the playing cards. Once the chains on my heart and mind were broken, there was nothing they could do to stop me.

We never told the other leaders in the Hidden Floor, but we had more than just one or two plans of escaping. There were at least ten different ways we could escape from the army above, at least 10 ways we could regain our freedom, however, everything depended on me... on my own strength, on my own will...

The weakness to the artifacts was surprisingly the thing that gave them power... my belief. They amplified my own emotions, my own thoughts, my own inner fears and worries. If I so much as thought that they were more powerful than me or that they could control me with them, then they could. It was so easy, so simple, however, getting rid of centuries of traumas and fears was not an easy thing to do... or maybe it was?

Looking down at this sea of soldiers, I felt uneasy. Will we be able to push them back? Will we be able to survive? This was what I thought...

Tuby told me that despite all of our preparations, there could always be one or two unexpected variables. The army they brought could be more powerful than we thought. Our traps could be easily discovered. They could maybe even use tricks like teleportation crystals or Supreme Spell Crystals that could ravage each floor before they even stepped on it. There could be a powerful dark horse among them, a being so powerful that none of our tricks and attacks would work against them.

A dark horse... an Apostle was Tuby’s worse fear, however, we already did a prevention for this. In the Hidden Floor, we built a shrine to the gods and allowed our people to pray to them. According to him, just by doing this for a couple of years would be enough to cause the Gods to stop their Apostles from attacking us. They would never allow harm to come upon their own believers, unfortunately, there was no Dungeon God... Even so, I prayed together with him every day or so.

The Crown Prince of the Despino Republic reached with his army at the gates of Koin and began a three-day feast as preparation for the upcoming attack. They ate and drank as if they were celebrating something glorious. Every single noble here was trying to pamper the royals. Flying around while hidden from their sight, I identified all of them. Their leader was without a doubt Kasimir Azfassar Teruk Despino, then there was Regius Artero Gassar, a reiss with a scar on his snout, white fur, and black eyes. His body was bulky and covered in muscles resembling more a minotaur than a rodent. He did not seem to be enjoying the festivities, however, when I followed him at night, I saw him torturing a few negvar elf slave women. He was a brutal beast. Then there was Kimir Asser Fagorm Despino, the younger brother of the Crown Prince. Although he was wearing a silver armor, he was definitely similar to his brother, his attitude and arrogance, at the very least, were on par, however, he knew his place. Someone tried to compare him to his older brother, and in rage, he killed them. The reason was simple, in his view, the Crown Prince represented the perfection of the Despino and had no need for comparison. He was going to serve his brother faithfully.

Was it a brotherly bond or was this his instinct for survival at play? After all, the Crown Prince did not seem like the type who would shy away from killing his own family member in order to have a stronger grip on his kingdom.

This entire punitive force was being led by the Domeris Republic, so the others were only here for achievements and to strengthen the connections between the countries. This would explain why the Vespora Kingdom sent only one prince, Elderimus Palos Vertino. He was much older than the others, but his table was the least presentable. Comparing him with the Reiss, it was clear whom the Crown Prince favored. Looking around, I could tell there was tension in the air. The soldiers, mercenaries, and adventurers from Vespora Kingdom were constantly glaring at the elves and the reiss. For them, this adventure probably had a different purpose, one of recovering their honor.

While these four were the main ones, there were a few other princes and princesses as well. They were kept away from the main table and mingled around with mercenaries and soldiers. For them, this was an opportunity to spread their wings outside of the palace and show that they could be of help to the future leaders. Their power, as far as I could tell, was average at best. It was unfortunate, but they would probably never have the chance to return to the surface.

While they did not count as members of this army and were sent here more with the role of making sure the Royals came back safely, the Slaves contracted to me were also here. All of them... all 26 of them could be found around a table enjoying the celebration and as usual, acting like they were better than anyone.

In three days, there were 206 murders, more than 10000 cases of rape among the citizens of Koin, and 26 mercenaries were killed for one reason or another. The adventurers were the only ones who were spared because they kept their distance from the nobles and Royals. Now, on the third day, the army’s march begun.

Leading at the front, the Crown Prince was showing everyone an expression full of confidence. He believed that this mission was going to be an easy one. That they would have no problem at all reaching the Core World. The adventurers were all bragging about how easy it was to descend through the first floors and that with such a mighty army, it was just about traveling there rather than going through challenging traps and risking their life against powerful foes.

They were all smug... complacent... confident in the illusion we had created.

So, I waited... and watched... Until they reached the 3rd Layer... the Endless Labyrinth.

The journey took no more than four days, and I made sure they had a gathering spot on the 1st floor of the labyrinth. Then, I begun the plan.

“I order ALL of my Slaves... Kill everyone around you. Target the weak, cripple the strong! Do NOT STOP even if you are injured and are about to die! If you have to die, die fighting, taking out at least one more person with you!” I gave the order, which only they could hear.

As chaos ensued, I begun the plan. Using most of my Magic Energy, I reshaped the entire dungeon from the last Golem Paradise floor going up. The monsters were unleashed, the traps were armed and set. The labyrinth was changed and summoning circles were activated. The path going back was buried and hidden, while the paths going down were also relocated, hidden behind puzzles and traps. Then, I changed the entirety of the Endless Mountains. Lava rivers started to form and monsters more powerful than the previous ones appeared all over the place. The ground was also reshaped, so their paths were destroyed so that none would lead to the Endless Plains floor. That path, as well, was laced with traps and filled with poison gas.

The Koin City, which up until now was revered as the heaven of adventurers was going to experience a monster wave. Dozens of summoning circles that were previously placed by me at the edges of the floor were now activated. The monster wave begun, all aiming to hunt down and slaughters the residence there. As for the paths going up to the surface, they were left open for the people to escape, but in time, they would collapse.

However, as a Dungeon, I could not cut off my only access to the surface, it went against all my instincts. So, another path opened up, the escape route that I had planned with Tuby. Somewhere far away from this place, close to the beach, a cave appeared. This cave was connected to my dungeon. Through it, I could breathe.

This was only the beginning, however, for now, I was tired and needed to sleep. Thus, I returned to my Crystal Body located safely at the top of the pyramid behind multiple barriers and closed my eyes. This would probably be the first time in a while that I felt so tired and also slept so peacefully.